EuroVolleyM: Finland and North Macedonia meet in the opener once again

The CEV EuroVolley 2021 Men starts on Wednesday and, repeating what happened two years ago, Finland and North Macedonia will meet in their opening match in the tournament, this time at the Hakametsä Arena, in Tampere. Estonia and Latvia are the other teams to get on the court in the first day of the tournament as the teams will clash in Tallinn.

The two teams, which are part of Pool C alongside Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands and Spain, have met just once before, exactly in their opening match in the 2019 edition of the EuroVolley, in Ljubljana, where the Finnish won 3-1.

Appearing in the tournament for the 19^th time, Finland wants to use the home court advantage on Pool C to make sure the team finished higher than 14^th, the position they reached two years ago.

To do that, the Finnish, who haven’t competed together since the summer of 2019, rely on their experienced core formed by 32-year-old setter and team captain Eemi Tervaportti, 33-year-old opposite Urpo Sivula and 28-year-old libero Lauri Kerminen, who was the best receiver of the 2015 EuroVolley.

Banks and Finland can, however, expect more than just fighting spirit from the North Macedonians this time. The team has acquired invaluable experience since the last time the teams met, most notably winning silver at this year’s CEV European Silver League.

Playing in the EuroVolley for just the second time, they have a new head coach in charge in Serbian Dusko Nikolic but their most important players remain opposite and team captain Nikola Gjorgiev, the best scorer of the European Silver League, and charismatic libero Darko Angelovski.